Middle East News

16 die in Nile ferry accident

AP - 46 minutes ago

MINYA, Egypt - A minibus fell off a ferry and sank in the Nile River in southern Egypt Saturday, killing 16 people including six children, security and local officials said.

  • Palestinians cast shadows on a bullet ridden wall as they inspect the damage in a house destroyed in an Israeli army air strike Thursday, in the Maghazi refugee camp, central Gaza Strip, Friday, Dec. 21, 2007. Israel is willing to negotiate a truce with the radical Islamic Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip, a senior Israeli minister said, Friday. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)
    Israeli minister open to Hamas truce AP - 53 minutes ago

    JERUSALEM - Israel's infrastructure minister said Friday that he favored a conditional cease-fire with Hamas, becoming the highest-ranking official to welcome the militant group's proposal.

  • Turkish soldiers patrol in Sirnak province, on the Turkish-Iraqi border, southeastern Turkey, in this photo dated Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2007. The Turkish army sent hundreds of soldiers about three kilometers, 1 1/2 miles, into northern Iraq in an overnight operation against Kurdish rebels till early Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2007, Kurdish officials said. (AP Photo/Ibrahim Usta)
    Turkish planes bomb Kurds in Iraq again AP - 2 hours, 14 minutes ago

    ISTANBUL, Turkey - Turkish warplanes bombed Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq on Saturday in the third confirmed cross-border offensive by Turkish forces in less than a week, the military said.

  • Iranian ex-president attacks hardliners AP - Sat Dec 22, 2:46 PM ET

    TEHRAN, Iran - A popular former president has resumed his attacks against hardline Iranian clerics threatening to disqualify reformists from upcoming elections.

  • An Iraqi soldier pushes children on a swing in central Baghdad, Iraq Saturday, Dec. 22, 2007. Residents of Baghdad packed the capital's parks and amusement rides on Saturday, taking advantage of a lull in violence and the Islamic feast of Eid al-Adha to venture out of their homes in droves. (AP Photo/ Khalid Mohammed)
    Iraqi gov't pledges to disband Sunnis AP - Sat Dec 22, 2:40 PM ET

    BAGHDAD - Iraq's Shiite-led government declared Saturday that after restive areas are calmed it will disband Sunni groups battling Islamic extremists because it does not want them to become a separate military force.

  • Challenges facing Egypt's DNA lab AP - Sat Dec 22, 12:47 PM ET

    Egypt's $5 million DNA lab, funded by the Discovery Channel, is the centerpiece of an ambitious plan to identify mummies and re-examine the royal mummy collection.

  • American tourists look at the mummy of Pharaoh King Ramses II, who ruled Egypt for about 66 years (1279-1213 BC), at the Egyptian museum in Cairo, Egypt, Tuesday, Aug. 21, 2007. Egypt's first ancient DNA lab, funded by the Discovery Channel, is the centerpiece of an ambitious plan to identify nameless mummies and re-examine the royal mummy collection. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)
    Mummy claim faces DNA scrutiny AP - Sat Dec 22, 12:45 PM ET

    CAIRO, Egypt - Months after Egypt boldly announced that archaeologists had identified a mummy as the most powerful queen of her time, scientists in a museum basement are still analyzing DNA from the bald, 3,500-year-old corpse to try to back up the claim aired on TV.

  • Daniel Levinson, center, shows a picture of his father Robert Levinson, an American former FBI agent, who was last seen on Iranian Kish island on March 8, as his mother Christine sits, right, while Swiss ambassador to Tehran speaks with media during a press conference, at the Swiss Embassy In Tehran, which handles U.S. interests in Iran, Saturday, Dec. 22, 2007. Iran said Saturday that Tehran did not have any information about a former FBI agent who reportedly went missing while visiting a Persian Gulf island, the state-run news agency, IRNA, reported. Christine Levinson and her 22-year-old son, Daniel, arrived in Tehran on Tuesday to seek information about her husband, who was on Kish to investigate a cigarette smuggler for a client of his security firm. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
    Wife has no luck finding husband in Iran AP - Sat Dec 22, 11:36 AM ET

    TEHRAN, Iran - The wife of a missing former FBI agent said Saturday she has been unable to find out what happened to her husband despite visiting the Iranian island where he was last seen.

  • Saudi security forces stand guard on a road in Riyadh, February 2006. Saudi authorities have arrested an Al-Qaeda linked group planning to carry out terrorist attacks during the annual hajj pilgrimage, Al-Arabiya television quoted security officials as saying Friday.(AFP/File/Hassan Ammar)
    Saudi officials foil plot on hajj sites AP - Fri Dec 21, 6:43 PM ET

    Riyadh, SAUDI ARABIA - Police arrested a group of men planning to attack holy sites around Mecca during the just-completed annual Muslim pilgrimage, the Saudi Interior Ministry said Friday.

  • Mirror, mirror on the wall : US soldiers are reflected on a mirror while patrolling in Baghdad's predominantly Shiite suburb of Sadr City on the second day of the Shiites' Eid al-Adha festivities. (AFP/Wissam al-Oakili)
    US military deaths in Iraq at 3,896 AP - Fri Dec 21, 6:40 PM ET

    As of Friday, Dec. 21, 2007, at least 3,896 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes eight military civilians. At least 3,171 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers.

  • Muslims pilgrims walk to perform ritual 'stoning of the devil' in Mina, in Saudi Arabia, Thursday, Dec. 20, 2007. Thousands of Muslim pilgrims threw pebbles at stone pillar representing the devil in third day of Hajj carrying out a cleansing ritual at a site just outside the holy city of Mecca that has been the scene of disasters in previous years.(AP Photo/Hasan Sarbakhshian)
    Muslim pilgrims saddened by end of hajj AP - Fri Dec 21, 3:30 PM ET

    MECCA, Saudi Arabia - After five days of exhaustion and hardships, Muslim pilgrims were saddened to see the annual hajj come to a close Friday, ending what for many is a spiritual high point of their lives.

  • Hezbollah rejects Bush Lebanon comments AP - Fri Dec 21, 2:03 PM ET

    BEIRUT, Lebanon - The militant Hezbollah group denounced President Bush on Friday for urging Lebanon's anti-Syrian lawmakers to push through their own choice for president if necessary to resolve a long political deadlock.

  • In this image released by the U.S. Army, Thursday Dec. 20, 2007 bodies found in a mass grave near a torture chamber are seen near Muqdadiyah, about 90 kilometers (60 miles) north of Baghdad, Iraq on Sunday, Dec. 9, 2007. U.S. soldiers found mass graves north of Baghdad next to a torture center where chains were attached to blood-spattered walls and a metal bed frame was still connected to an electrical shock system, the military said Thursday. (AP Photo/US Army, HO)
    Torture chamber found in Iraq AP - Fri Dec 21, 12:57 PM ET

    BAGHDAD - Blood-splotches on walls, chains hanging from a ceiling and swords on the killing floor — the artifacts left a disturbing tale of brutalities inside a suspected al-Qaida in Iraq torture chamber. But there was yet another chilling fact outside the dirt-floor dungeon. Villagers say they knew about the torment but were too intimidated by extremists to tell authorities until now.

  • 7 Shiite activists arrested in Bahrain AP - Fri Dec 21, 6:30 AM ET

    MANAMA, Bahrain - Bahraini security forces stormed the houses of the country's most outspoken Shiite opposition group at dawn Friday, arresting at least seven of its members, the group said.